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Macaroni As a Vegetable

A baked macaroni dish with eggs, cream, ham, meat, cheese, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni As a Vegetable

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the macaroni.

  2. Simmer until tender, being careful not to break the pieces, then drain the water.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, egg whites, cream, chopped white meat, chopped ham, grated cheese, salt, and pepper.

  2. Heat the mixture in a pan, stirring constantly until warmed through.

  3. Mix the heated mixture with the drained macaroni.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer to a buttered mold and steam for 1 hour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and body of the casserole once cooked and combined.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable texture when heated.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the custard-like mixture set when steamed.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving a softer, silkier texture.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, helping bind the filling.

The step that matters

Warming the egg mixture. Stirring constantly keeps the eggs from scrambling or curdling on the bottom of the pan. Gentle, even heat lets the eggs thicken smoothly so they set evenly with the macaroni during steaming.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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